Today Olivia Rodrigo's new album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so much in love is released. I really like the Olivia Rodrigo/Robert Smith combo.

Robert Smith sings background vocals on the song 'what's wrong with me'.

'drop dead' is the lead single from the new album that's released today. Part of the lyrics:

you know all all the words to 'Just Like Heaven' And I know why he wrote them now that you're standin' right here

It's cute.

The songs on the album are mostly much better than what's heard on Taylor Swift's new album.

#music #MusicTips #OliviaRodrigo #RobertSmith #pop

I just discovered Iskandr's latest single, which consists of the three last singles to be released from their coming album, Sacraal. The band are on Eisenwald, a weird and wondrous record label.

Qobuz calls the single 'alternative & indie'. Record Club call them a black-metal band. The second song on the latest single off the album combines old-school acoustic instruments with reverbed-the-hell-out vocals, goth elements, gloom shit, and...techno?

That's it. The single is great. I'm buying Sacraal.

#music #MusicTips #BlackMetal #techno #experimental #goth #alternative

I just saw Kurt Vile shout-out to Czarface's absolutely brilliant hip-hop album Super What?:

Earlier this year, Vile spoke with The Quietus about the album:

I didn’t know what to expect from this record. I bought it when I was on the road. I listened to it on a ferry on a Discman, leaving the UK, headed to Europe. The music behind it is really good, but then the rest of it is insane and makes me laugh, and it’s just the perfect intro. It just explodes into my headphones and into my brain, and I’ve never been the same. That’s one of my favourite modern tracks as well.

The video is better than the Quietus thing; Vile is obviously deeply into hip-hop and he loves music. By the way, Vile's latest album is really fucking playful and good. He's always creating good music. Go, Kurt Vile!

Czarface is a great collaboration. Imagine hip-hop at its most playful, groovy, and funky, and you're down. Everything Czarface release is truly great, no exaggeration. Everything from the comic-book examples... It's not weird that MF DOOM collaborated with Czarface. I mean, check out this album. It's actually the first posthumous release from MF DOOM after his death.

This album is SO much fun. Darryl from RUN-DMC is in here. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien is here. There's so much to love here. Simple and flash lyrics, references to everything from throwaway riddims like 'dem girls like sugaaaaah' to the laughter at the start of the first track.

I fucking love musicians that don't take themselves too seriously. Make no mistake, this is not sloppy in any sense; this is music by people who know what the hell they're doing and have the chops to take in influences, fun, chaos, chance, and severely addictive rhymes and beats from everywhere.

I fucking love hip-hop and this album is a great example of why everyone should get deeply into this.

This album reminds me of Deltron 3030's eponymous great album...

#music #MusicTips #Czarface #MFDOOM #HipHop

It's interesting to read about Stefan Zweig. He deeply influenced Wes Anderson as the later wrote The Grand Budapest Hotel-

I thought about the film as I started reading The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. I found the book when I read Sarah Bakewell's additions to the recent 100 best novels of all time list that The Guardian collated. The list was gathered by results from asking critics and authors of their best novels. This past weekend, the Guardian released the 100 best novels all-time list as gathered by readers. The Magic Mountain is #42 on the author list, #50 on the reader list.

The book sucked me in even when I felt guarded against just that. Fuck me. So far I've read 14%. Mann's greatness is obvious even just ten pages into the book. The book seems to often be described as 'philosophical'. There are plenty of philosophical concepts in the book, but those are in the eyes of the beholder; Mann simply holds up a mirror to the human.

About Sweden, I've read about how Swedish 'christian democrat' Alice Theodorescu Måwe has accepted around 100,000 USD as a 'side income' which she failed to report. Lobbyists are going to lobby. In other Tidö-party-related news, the extremist right-wing xenophobic, homophobic, and anti-pedophile party Sverigedemokraterna had a government representative leave the party due to child-pornography charges. Don't get me wrong: sexual disorder doesn't care about political-party affiliations. It's just astonishing to see how Sverigedemokraterna treat their own once they've done something 'wrong'; see how William Petzäll was driven to his death.

Swedish TV have a humour show on. A guest star in an episode is Nick Alinia, a conspiracy-theorist nazi sympathiser. Nice. Contestants have chosen to leave the show.

This weekend, I learned that the CIA used 'vampires' to fight communism in the Philippines. They've done worse, apart from some things.

I really like Spatial, No Problem. by Mouse on Mars and Lee “Scratch” Perry. Of course, Perry is dead, but he recorded so much with so many people that I think and hope it will take decades until the well runs dry. The album is wondrous. I love the playful lyrics, not least the ones made with Bob Marley and the ones against Chris “Vampire” Blackwell.

Gary Marcus has written an article named Slop, productivity and why the AI-fueled world is going nowhere mighty fast. Even the graphs say a lot.

If you need more fresh reasons to hate big AI companies, read Ed Zitron's article The Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble 3.0.

#EdZitron #ArtificialIntelligence #books #reading #Sweden #politics #sverigedemokraterna #kristdemokraterna #lobbying #music #MusicTips

Today Swedish krautrock-meets-psych-rock band Les Big Byrd release their new album, Ruin Everything.

This track may be my favourite on the album.

On the other hand, the title track is also pretty dope.

#music #MusicTips #LesBigByrd #psych

I read an article named Qobuz Is Suddenly One of the Fastest-Growing Streaming Music Platforms. But Why, You Ask?. From the article:

Amidst seemingly endless price hikes and controversies over at the market leader, listeners (and artists) are quietly seeking alternatives. Curiously, Qobuz Managing Director of North America and Northern Europe, Dan Mackta, notes that a surprising number of Spotify users ditched their accounts right after their year-end ‘Wrapped’ campaigns were revealed.

It's not unexpected. People hate Spotify for many, many good reasons, like how they're not only using AI to ditch record labels, how they're actively lobbying against songwriter payouts, how their CEO (Daniel Ek) uses his personal extreme-amount wealth to buy AI warfare bullshit, et cetera.

After extreme backlash, Spotify say they're going to label AI music; I'm not sure what they think 'AI music' is, but rest assured they'll try to fuck over the consumer. Don't forget what Liz Pelly wrote about Spotify; her book is excellent, buy it.

I've written about Qobuz before. I use Qobuz, both for streaming and buying music. From my own garden article:

They are, as far as I know, the only music-streaming and music-purchase platform that openly publish how much they pay per stream.

In terms of average revenue per user (ARPU), Qobuz generated average revenue of  US$121.13 per year, where the market average is US$22.38 per year. This means that Qobuz generates on average five times more revenue per user than the market average, which results in a significant impact on artists' remuneration.

From the article I mentioned at the top:

Without naming names, Qobuz told us their per-stream payouts are ‘four times higher than the nearest competitor.’ According to DMN’s stats, that’s also approximately six times Spotify’s per-stream payouts, a company that, incidentally, entirely downplays the use of per-stream royalty measurements.

Yeah. Buy your music, stream it from a provider that's got good-quality stuff and, most importantly, pay the makers a good amount of money.

Most surveys, over time, show that humans value music the most out of any art form. Consider ancient Greece: philosophers, musicians, writers, etc. were treated very well, because they made what people loved; sure, ancient Greece also thought that keeping slaves was a good idea—Daniel Ek surely loved that part about ancient Greece!—but treasuring what made people happy and didn't hurt animals and the planet was and is good.

#music #MusicStreaming #MusicBusiness #BrokenRecord

When The Bluetones came in 199something, I really loved their singles. 'Slight Return', what a song.

I recently read an article about how the band made 'Slight Return'. I remember that time. It made me listen to The Bluetones again. They've got a new album out.

I also remember first reading Anna Wharton's words; she's Mark Morriss' ex wife. Morriss is the singer in The Bluetones.

Wharton accused Morriss of “telling people that I am crazy, and lying about me”, “gaslighting women to believe what he wanted them to, convincing them not to put the dots together and realise what a narcissistic, pathological liar and serial predator he is”. She claimed that he also told his mother that she tricked him into the pregnancy and lied that she was bipolar.

The quote is from this article in The Guardian. Wharton also wrote a lot about Morriss, for example, this post, which is available in its entirety here.

On the youtube page of the video at the top of this page, the description is:

After a 14 year hiatus from writing and recording (due to one thing or another) The Bluetones release their first single in ages, Drive Thru.

The 'due to one thing or another' sounds ominous in light of what Wharton called out.

Regardless. Regardless?

I still struggle with separating artists from their art.

I'm listening to Atlas, the new Bluetones album. The first track is the first single, the video I've embedded on this page. It's got fuzzy production, unlike the band's first albums.

I must say, I always loved the lead guitarist. There are so many things he's done on their first album – oh, wait, I need to list a couple more brilliant songs:

They do carry a lot of lovely tracks. It's not unfair to compare them with The Stone Roses; I must confess I didn't make that connection until today when someone else connected the dots: it makes perfect sense, although Bluetones are far more put-together and English in a Blur-in-1992 way. The guitars are a lodestar where Bluetones are concerned. There's also a fair amount of nerdy organ thrown in at times.

I've never ever thought of The Bluetones as a sexual band, but I guess someone like Morriss would hide behind that.

This is a wonderfully sweet song, at least the chorus; then again, it turns a bit sour as I think of what Morriss may have done.

May. I don't know. I don't know him. By the sounds of his voice and that of Wharton, though, I think she's most likely telling the truth about most things on how Morriss abused her in many different ways. Even half of what she's said should send him to therapy for a very long time.

At the very least, I can't help but wonder what the rest of the band thinks about him and his actions. Even if they'd loathe the man, I guess they would still go on tour with him and release new music, possibly because they'd need the money.

On the other hand, is that worth the effort?

I struggle with myself. I've written about this many times: I used to love and adore Morrissey, before I knew he was a xenophobe, racist, nationalist, islamophobe, and supporter of extreme far-right movements. I should have known better. Cornershop warned us.

The new Bluetones album is OK but I can't see myself listening to it more than once. I can't remember any songs bar the first one; that says more about myself than the band. I laud musicians these days, it's really hard work, forcing them on tour far more than they should be travelling. On the other hand, to paraphrase Daniel Radcliffe's father, at least they're not coal miners.

I can't help but feel a little dirty when I think about The Bluetones, when I'm able to not only focus on the music. I think I might throw myself back to a time before I heard about Morriss' terrible actions and inactions.

I think of Gene, another 1990s band. Beautiful lyrics, wonderfully melodic guitar lines, very The Smiths-like. No britpop go-Blighty bullshit. Martin Rossiter, the singer, stood up and spoke out in a beautiful article named Why Morrissey Is Dead To Me. That's balls.

The Gene song 'You'll Never Walk Again' is wonderful. It makes me think of the person who means the most to me: my wife. The guitars somehow matches her countless wonderful expressions.

We're giving the world The kick it requires And if you can't see why Look into my eyes

'cause with you on my side/no, the feeling's not gone

#music #MusicTips #IndieRock #abuse

The Cramps are one of my favourite bands. Their debut album, Songs the Lord Taught Us, is excellent and influenced a million bands. It was produced by Alex Chilton, one of the main persons behind Big Star.

The Cramps ceased when Lux Interior, the singer, died.

Now, legendary Ian Mackaye and Henry Rollins help to bring out Gravest Gravy, a collection of previously-unreleased tracks recorded in 1977.

In Rollins' own words:

In October 1977, the Cramps, who were at that time, Lux Interior on vocals, Poison Ivy on guitar, Bryan Gregory on guitar, and Nick Knox on drums, ventured into Ardent Studios with the extraordinarily talented musician and producer, Alex Chilton. These sessions were responsible for the first two Vengeance Records releases, both permanently disfiguring the music world in 1978.

'Surfin' Bird' / 'The Way I Walk' 'Human Fly' / 'Domino'

“In 1979, young British degenerates were treated to a five track 12” EP by the Cramps called Gravest Hits, which featured all four tracks released in the USA, along with another from the October 1977 sessions, a great channeling of Ricky Nelson's hit 'Lonesome Town.' From there, the band released their first LP, Songs The Lord Taught Us, again working with Alex Chilton, and went onward, releasing records and touring all over until the sad passing of Lux in 2009.

“What Cramps fans might not know, was at Ardent, the band had planned to record their song 'TV Set' to be their first A side, along with another track or tracks. Alex told them that he liked to have a band play every song they knew and the best of the batch would be committed to vinyl. This was fantastic advice, and luckily for us, that's what the Cramps did. This is how 'Lonesome Town' found its way to Gravest Hits. But, there was much more to the story.

“In the late 1980s, Lux and Ivy endeavored to release more recordings from the October 1977 sessions. It was to be titled Gravest Gravy. It was a record for the fans, a journey back to Memphis, back to the first Cramps records, that, try as it might, the world has been unable to heal from. Lux and Ivy mixed several tracks between June 14 and 30, 1989 at Present Time Recorders, in North Hollywood. Alex mixed a few tracks in Memphis. The album had a title, a cover by the great Stephanie Chernikowski, who passed away recently, but for reasons lost to time, Gravest Gravy was shelved.

“In 2026, we sought to change that. It was apparent that this record absolutely needed to be with the fans. A team, still severely cramped from initial contact with the band, began to form and got to work.”

Gravest Gravy is released on 2026-08-21. Get a lime-green vinyl version at Rough Trade. I can't wait to see what merch will be cooked up for this.

#music #MusicTips #TheCramps #IanMackaye #HenryRollins #LuxInterior #BryanGregory #PoisonIvy #NickKnox #psychobilly #RockNRoll

One Leg One Eye are an Irish band. As I'm writing this, I see part of the band is Ian Lynch from wondrous band Lankum.

Just listen to the first song on their new album, Crone: intertwining voices, shouts, guttural noise, thrashing of the Earth, upheaval, folk-song, droning wooden instruments, sweeping synths. This is simultaneously hypnotic and awakening.

Imagine Swans with a more folky tinge. The album is well mastered, by Lasse Marhaug, who's also worked with people like Sunn O))) and Merzbow.

Don't miss their debut album, And Take The Black Worm With Me, which is partly described like this by The Guardian:

Mixed by longtime Lankum collaborator John “Spud” Murphy, a My Bloody Valentine devotee, hurdy-gurdies, shruti boxes and concertinas are manipulated through loops and effects pedals, creating dazzling sounds. A church organ (played by Ruth Clinton of Irish group Landless) and backing vocals (by black metal vocalist Laurie Shanaman) add further strata of feeling. It all suggests great things for Lankum’s next LP, out in spring.

#music #MusicTips #IanLynch #drone #folk

Caroline Shaw is a fairly young person who's done a lot of interesting music. She has focused on voices in the past.

However, to say she's a vocal composer is wrong. She's composed and arranged a lot more interesting music than that.

For example, here's the entire soundtrack for the TV-series Fleischman is in Trouble:

Her vocal arrangements at times remind me of both baroque voices and what Hildur Guðnadóttir did with some music she composed for Chernobyl.

However, Shaw's most recently-released work, or, The Whale, which she's made with Andrew Yee, is very good in ways different to her earlier work:

Here's a live session with Shaw and Yee from 2023:

Here's a 22-minute interview with Shaw on her musical roots, creativity, and collaboration.

#music #MusicTips #CarolineShaw #NeoClassical #soundtrack